Unopened Hospital Recruits Volunteers

September 27, 1985|By Tammie Shanahan of The Sentinel Staff

Although Orlando Regional Medical Center's 150-bed Sand Lake Hospital will not be open until Nov. 4, officials already are appealing for volunteer help. When the hospital opens, more than 75 volunteers will be needed in the department of auxiliary services.

Members of the auxiliary will serve from four to 24 hours a week and work with nearly every other unit and department in the hospital, as well as community projects and programs, said Mary Jane Pell, assistant hospital director at Sand Lake.

Volunteers will staff information desks, answer phones, do clerical work, transport patients and run errands for various departments. They also will distribute patient and hospital mail, deliver flowers to patients, assist in rehabilitation and outpatient services, staff waiting rooms and run errands for patients.

''Volunteers add another experience for the patient. They talk more personally with patients and they let employees of the hospital know if something is bothering the patient,'' Pell said. ''They also make it possible for us to open the hospital with less employees; therefore, it helps cut down on costs.''

Hospital officials, who are not quite ready to begin a more complex teen- age volunteer program, are looking for adults -- young and old, male or female -- to fill the vacancies.

Recruiting techniques so far have included a meeting with residents of Williamsburg, a subdivision made up mainly of retired persons, Pell said.

The next step to get volunteers will be an organizational meeting from 10:30 a.m. to noon today at the Sonesta Village Hotel on Turkey Lake Road. During the meeting, officials will give the history of the Sand Lake hospital, describe the type of people needed, answer questions and hand out applications.

A meeting will be held Oct. 11 for volunteers already selected. At that time, chairmen will be announced, information and policy about uniforms will be distributed and the auxiliary's role in the grand opening of the Sand Lake hospital will be discussed.

''We depend on volunteers quite a bit,'' Pell said. ''If we didn't have them, we would have to have professionals stop their jobs to do the tasks normally performed by the volunteers.''

Built on 46 acres off Interstate 4 on Turkey Lake Road, the six-story ORMC Sand Lake Hospital is a full-service health care center that will provide 24- hour emergency care. The $35 million medical and surgical hospital will be linked with the ORMC downtown center through the Air Care Team medical transport helicopter.